


one part fear to one part love

by znake



Series: you wouldn't believe [3]
Category: One Piece
Genre: F/M, It's About the Parallels, genuinly don't know how to tag this, its about LOVE. ROMANCE. HOW THE WEIGHT OF OUR PASTS DON'T DEFINE OUR FUTURE, you know when it's 23h and you start feeling things?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:48:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26123752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/znake/pseuds/znake
Summary: On one side of the ocean, Nico Robin stares at the ocean and hopes to one day leave. On the other, Cutty Flam hopes to stay there forever.
Relationships: Franky/Nico Robin
Series: you wouldn't believe [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1885597
Comments: 1
Kudos: 37





	one part fear to one part love

**Author's Note:**

> title from New Love by Civilian

**1.**

Robin flips her page, the endless sea laid out before her. She’d like to get up, leave, adventure, but instead she finds herself with her feet stuck in the sand, reading a book she knows by heart.

So she turns the page and imagines herself in the place of the hero - a dashing marine commander sent to save a small island from the terror of pirates.

She sees herself in him, in the way the locals treat him with distrust and malaise. In the book, the children are the only ones who don’t antagonise him, their curiosity trumping their prejudices. Odd, she thinks to herself, as she summons an arm to throw a rock behind her, where she knows one of her bullies is lurking. In her experience, kids were always the worst.

But the sun is setting now, both on a wedding in her book, and in front of her very eyes. And as she closes her book, the sea wind hits her and catches in her hair, billowing out behind her.

One day, she’d be out of here. One day, she’d be free.

**2.**

On the other side of the ocean, Cutty Flam puts down his hammer to wipe his brow. He’s been working on his new Battle-Franky all day. This time, he was seeing how much ammo he could fit in while still having it be able to fire. 

He picks his hammer back up and returns to work. That Ice-for-brains might not understand him, but he doesn’t care. That dumbass wouldn’t know genius if it hit him in the head with a wrench. He’d know.

But he’s soon distracted again as a sea wind hits him in full force, the kind that makes sailors delay their trips for fear of storms. All he cares for is the way it ruins his hair.

And as he blinks the sand and salt away, he finds himself wondering about what lies beyond the horizon’s line. What could be so tempting to draw men and women from their families, parents from their children?

But that was of no importance to him. He’d be here forever, happy, and free.

**3.**

It’s what feels like a lifetime later, and the sky is cloudy and dark as she runs from another home, turned trap. She still clutches a book to her small frame, the only thing she dares bring with her. The day she stops learning, the moment she stops running, that will be when she dies.

And as she faces the grim nature of her own end, she decides, bare feet wet in the still dewey grass, that she’d rather die in broad daylight then be lost to obscurity.

**4.**

And Cutty Flam is dead, run over in broad daylight by his father’s gravestone given life. And Franky rises, holding tight his tools, his secrets, and the name his brother gave him.

He’s built of metal now, of stone, but his mind and heart remain. And he feels, god does he feel, the pain he caused.

If Cutty Flam died a criminal and a showman, then Franky will live as befits a dead man, destined to rot away in darkness known to none but his dearest friend.

**5.**

Miss All Sunday has thrown away so much, for the promise of protection and the ability to put her knowledge to use. The last remnant of her past, her name, thrown out like a burnt out firework. And so she works, and she hurts, and she does not think of what the few she considered family would think of her.

And a boy shows up, his ragtag crew alongside, and they defeat her protector and return the rain to the land, the rightful princess along with it.

And she looks out to the sea, remembering her dream from so long ago, and decides to give it a second chance

**6.**

Franky fights and bickers, he steals and builds, he creates his new self. If his brother will be the light, then he’ll be the darkness. He steels his arms, his heart, he plans and seeks. 

But a kid shows up, a pirate, he fights with his friend, and as Franky thinks back he can’t help but see himself and his own regret.

And so he takes his knowledge, his years of suffering and hiding, and tries to give someone else a second chance.

**7.**

And the two of them, complete strangers, tied together only by the weight of their pasts, stand and wait for the end.

And the boy, the kid, who seems more like a grown man with every passing moment, calls out. He yells, waiting for the answer to unfreeze a long locked up heart.

As she sobs, cries, that she wants to live, that she doesn’t want this to be the end, he wonders to himself if this was always where they were meant to be. Side by side, facing death, yet still unwilling to give in.

**8.**

They sit side by side on the deck of the ship Franky built, staring out at the blue expanse in front of them.

I never thought I’d leave, he says, without averting his eyes.

I never thought I’d be free, she murmurs back, voice taken by the sea breeze into the great unknown.

**9.**

He buys Robin books, sometimes, on his way back from collecting parts. An encyclopedia, a novella, anything that catches his eye. For you, he states, handing them over, unwrapped and raw. Thank you, she smiles. 

Her collection grows, and when she asks he builds her shelves.

Odd, he thinks. I wonder how she organises, to have encyclopedias and novellas side by side.

**10.**

She memorises Franky’s tools, hands them over without lifting her hands from her book. She doesn’t question how he always builds where she can see him, the ship is only so big after all.

She appreciates his sense of aesthetic, his eye for detail. Each piece seems to outshine the last, each more intricate and complex.

Yet, she notes, he never forgets the basics. When they land on a new shore, he helps her off the boat, over the waves of the untouchable sea. And when they run, he carries her to spare her the exhaustion.

**11.**

And though time passes and scenery changes, the ocean remains constant, its waves lapping at their heels no matter where they go. 

She still sits and reads, but she’s no longer alone - Nami and Chopper across, Sanji beside, watching the mayhem of their friends. And below, Franky still builds weapons, but now he’s pushed by Luffy and Zoro, inspired by Usopp. 

**12.**

And when they find themselves alone together, they exist in a comfortable silence, thankful for every day they are still together. 

He carefully places his hand over hers, noting how small they are for all that they have carried.

And she curls her fingers around his, and she feels how rough his hands have become, as if they bared the weight of the world.

But while their pasts would forever remain, their future was still theirs to take hold of. And they would, side by side, holding hands until the end.

**Author's Note:**

> proofread by gummy. follow me on twt @sodiepopgaming etc. i just had many thoughts... many... you know when you start writing and then you Realise and you don't stop Realising? yeah! anyways trying out some style things. consistency? who is she


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